Leanda says trapdoor spiders can generally only live in uncleared bushland.

She says, in Perth, this means large urban remnants such as Kings Park, Bold Park, Star Swamp, Trigg and Koondoola, as well as smaller patches of bush including Underwood Ave, Marangaroo, Shenton Park and Paloma Park.

As they do not need a lot of space, they can even be found on some verges that haven’t been cleared.

HOMEBODIES

Leanda says trapdoor spiders do everything in their burrows, with the males leaving only to mate and then dying shortly afterwards.

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Leanda Mason

Trapdoor spider at her burrow entrance in Kings Park

Trapdoor spider at her burrow entrance in Kings Park

She says females stay inside their entire lives.

And their lives can be long.

“We’ve got a paper about to be published saying that one of them has lived until they’re 43,” Leanda says.

She says that trapdoor spider, a matriarch first tagged by Dr Main in 1974 and known simply as #16, is the oldest spider ever recorded.

Leanda says the current Guinness World Record holder was either a 28-year-old pet tarantula or Tasmanian cave spiders, which are thought to live up to 40 years.

Sadly, #16 died after being parasitised by a spider wasp in October last year.

ON BURROWED TIME

While she couldn’t save #16, Leanda is on a mission to protect #16’s eight-legged kin.

Leanda is hoping to spread some bug love to help protect some of Perth’s vulnerable creepy crawlies

Leanda also appeals to people not to kill spiders in their backyards, arguing that no one has died from spider venom in Australia for more than 30 years and spiders control potentially deadly pest species such as mosquitoes.

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​Michelle Wheeler

Freelance science journalist

Michelle is a former science and environment reporter for The West Australian. Her work has seen her visit a snake-infested island dubbed the most dangerous in the world, the remote SKA telescope site and isolated tribes in the Malaysian jungle. Michelle was a finalist for the Best Freelance Journalist at the 2014 WA Media Awards.

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